Friday Beetle Blogging: The Prettiest Darkling Beetle

Google keeps suggesting I’m looking for “Hegemony”, but I’m not. This is Hegemona, a large darkling beetle we encountered in Belize:

These insects are large- about an inch long- and appear nearly black in the field. Under soft lighting, structural colors in the elytra emerge spectacularly. I suspect the bright alternating stripes serve to warn predators of the beetle’s toxicity, as it emitted a noxious odor when handled.

A former girlfriend a long time ago was looking at the acanthocephalan parasites of darkling beetles. She brought some big Eleodes into the field lab, and began the dissection. Punctured the “smell like an Eleodes” gland. The lab was evacuated for a couple of hours.

Hi Matthew. Considering the sparse literature on this genus, not to mention the very strong possibility that this species is undescribed, I’d venture that no work has been done on the UV appearance of the beetle. An excellent question, though.

And, as if you need another comment: what a lovely image! (Yes, I use the word ‘image’ advisedly.)

Thank you so much for sharing the tiny world that you see so largely, and are willing to share: so I don’t have to go through horrible airports and then be rained on in jungles and catch tropical diseases and come home sick and tired. : }

I love the photos of the other insects that you show, but I have learned to love the ants as well! I never realised before I read your blog how remarkably cute ants are!

How does your lens/camera combo handle diffraction at f/13?
I have the same camera and lens, and by f/11 the hairs in my jumping spiders start to look soft! I usually try to shoot at between f/8 and f/10 to avoid the diffraction softness…